1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a continuous plating apparatus for continuously plating a planar article to be plated, which solves a trouble in a portion where there occurs a problem in a timely and suitable manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
Previously, the present inventor developed a continuous plating system for continuously feeding planar articles to be plated into a plating bath to thereby continuously and effectively plate them.
FIG. 3 is a longitudinal cross-sectional front view showing an example of the continuous plating apparatus. A V-shaped rail 2 extending in a vertical direction to the paper surface is provided in the vicinity of a central bottom of a plating bath 1. An article 3 to be plated such as a printed circuit board is held in the vertical direction with its lower edge being laid on the rail 2. Both surfaces of the article 3 to be plated are clamped by rollers 5 fixed to vertical rotary shafts 4 connected to cathodes. The rollers 5 are rotated together with the rotary shafts 4 so that the article 3 to be plated is moved on and along the rail 2 under the condition that the article is dipped in plating liquid 6.
Anodes 7 and shielding plates 8 for preventing turbulence are provided in the plating liquid 6. The current is caused to flow through the-article 3 to which a minus potential is applied to the rollers 5 from the rotary shafts 4 connected to the cathodes, thereby plating the article 3.
FIG. 4 is a side elevational view as viewed in the direction IV--IV of FIG. 3. The articles to be plated are fed one after another onto the rail 2 so that a large number of the articles are fed at a constant interval along the rail 2 to thereby perform the plating in a continuous and effective manner.
If the articles 3 to be plated and to be fed by the rotation of the rollers 5 are prevented from moving along the rail 2 due to certain accidents so that the interval between the articles 3 to be plated is decreased or an overlap 9 of the articles 3 to be plated takes place as shown in FIG. 4, there occurs an inconvenience of plating the articles to be plated. In particular, in the case where the overlap 9 of the articles 3 takes place, the planar articles 3 are bent or warped to become faulty articles.
In the case where the defects due to the feeding of the articles 3 to be plated take place, the rotation of the rotary shaft 4 is stopped, the rotary shafts 4 where the defects occur are removed one by one and the rollers 5 are removed together with the rotary shafts 4. The position of the articles 3 to be plated where the defects occur is corrected and the damaged articles 3 are removed away from the rail 2. Thereafter, the rotary shafts 4 are mounted again on the sides of the rail 2 together with the rollers 5.
This work is troublesome and takes a relatively long time. In the meantime, the large number of other articles within the plating bath 1 (see FIG. 3) are all defective products, which leads to a large economic damage, a delay of distribution of the products or similiar problems.